Thursday, May 19, 2016

Security In Iraq, May 8-14, 2016

The Islamic State continued their spring offensive in the
second week of May. While the number of security incidents went down from the
previous week, casualties were up due to a number of mass casualty bombings by
the militants. This has been an annual event for the insurgents since 2004
rather than a change in tactics by IS.

There were 141 incidents the second week of May in Iraq.
That was down from the 160 recorded the week before. Attacks in Iraq regularly
go through an ebb and flow.

Once again Baghdad was the most violence province in the
country with 65 incidents. There were also 31 in Anbar, 15 in Diyala, 13 in
Kirkuk, 9 in Ninewa, 6 in Salahaddin, and 1 each in Babil and Basra.

Those incidents led to 311 deaths and 674 wounded. The 985
casualties were the most reported since the 1,421 during the last week of
February.

There were 193 fatalities in Baghdad, 38 in Diyala, 35 in
Anbar, 20 in Salahaddin, 15 in Ninewa, and 10 in Kirkuk.

Operations continued across a large stretch of central
Anbar. In the Ramadi area there were sweeps through Dulab,
Jabba, Wardiya,
and Albu
Diab. Dulab was cleared just the month before and Albu Diab had been
declared freed five times before since July 2015. Reinforcements arrived in Garma,
where an offensive has been going on for two years. The ISF also started
a new campaign from Baghdadi to Hit and cleared several towns. The Islamic State
responded with 28 counterattacks including two car bombs that hit their
targets. The press reported a total of 24 ISF and 8 Hashd killed in the
fighting, and another 21 ISF and 8 Hashd injured. The government has had some
large victories in Anbar, but is still struggling with the rural areas.

The main focus of the Islamic State’s spring campaign was
the capital. Although there have been fewer attacks then previous months in
May, the number of casualties has climbed due to several deadly bombings. On May
11 three suicide car bombs hit the east, north, and west leaving 103 dead and
170 wounded in one of the most violent days in recent years in Baghdad. Another
four suicide bombers took the lives of 11 people and wounded 27 in attacks on a
funeral
and a failed attempt to storm
a police station both in the Abu Ghraib district in the outer west. Things
could have been worse if four other suicide bombers hadn’t been killed.

As usual southern Baghdad was the main target of IS with 24
incidents there. Most of those are occurring in the outer southern towns rather
than the city proper. After that there were 17 incidents in the north, 11 in
the east, and 10 in the west. That included 3 robberies, 3 kidnappings, and 8
bodies dumped in the streets.

IS continued with an increased number of operations in Diyala
topped off by a car bomb and a suicide bomber. The car bomb hit a market, while the
suicide bomber was on a bus. They left
behind 29 bodies, and 114 wounded.

Violence went down in Kirkuk with fewer counter attacks after the
Hashd and Peshmerga freed the town of Bashir in the south. There were 13
incidents during the week compared to 20 the week before. IS did fire chemical filled rockets at the Kurds in that town.

Things also calmed down in Ninewa. The first week of May
there were 30 incidents, compared to just 9 the second week. The army freed the town of
Kabarouk in its Makhmour campaign, which has been disappointing so far. A Sunni
Hashd unit also took
the town of Kanun in the Bashiqa district. The Kurds claimed they were hit by
chemical filled mortar shells in the Gwar area, while IS attacked the Makhmour
district three times. IS also executed 15 in Mosul.

Salahaddin had been relatively quiet for months now, but
that ended during the week. On May 13 four suicide bombers and gunmen attacked
a café
in Balad that
killed 16 and injured 30.

As part of the militants spring offensive it has been
launching more car bombs. The number of successful ones has been going up.
There were 6 from May 8-14, 1 in Diyala, 2 in Anbar, and 3 in Baghdad. In total
they killed 138 and wounded 230 as the majority were aimed at civilian rather
than military targets. The government claimed it destroyed another 39, but
those figures are always exaggerated. For instance over the course of one day
the Iraqi forces went from claiming to have destroyed 3 suicide car bombs to 18
in Anbar. That kind of inflation is a normal part of the government’s
propaganda effort to show progress in the war.

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the politics, economics, security, culture and history of Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com